eyes
by goodbye wonderland
Summary: tina is lost without her glasses. zeke is surprisingly helpful. -— zeke and tina, friendship. [ficlet.]


**title**; eyes  
**summary**; tina is tina, but blind. zeke is zeke, but nice. [ficlet.]  
**pairings**; n/a – friendship!zeke and tina all the way.  
**words**; 910

* * *

"Why didn't I bring my extra pair?" Tina Belcher moaned to herself, nearly tripping over the lip of a row of lockers. She was fumbling along one of the many hallways of Wagstaff school, a hand clutching feebly at the wall for guidance. Her glasses, six layered lenses and thick frames, were absent from her face. They were now a pile of glass and black plastic in the chemistry room. There probably should be a rule about sticking a perpetually clumsy person with their self-sworn archnemesis in the same lab group. Tammy seemed to like to dump Tina out of her stool a lot; wrap a bony ankle around the leg of it and pull until Tina ended up in a heap on the floor, confused and blinking into the mess that had become her new glasses. Actually, Tina wondered, narrowly missing colliding with a fire extinguisher, if the newly blonde Tammy was the reason her shoe-lashes always seemed to come undone during lab.

With that thought, she tripped over her own foot, tangled in herself.

Tina landed on her knees with a yelp, hands bracing her fall. After a moment of startled breathing, and a declared, "I'm okay," she slid onto her butt, skirt ridding up. The olive-hued girl squinted at her feet. Her black converse looked like spilled paint, the white bottoms bleeding into the monochrome hues of the empty hallway.

Tina frowned.

She really needed to make it to the office for the sake of her kneecaps. Her dad (or her mom, really) would bring her glasses to her after she convinced the secretary that it was urgent and she needed her parents. Suddenly, she was anxious, her catchphrase "ahhh!" tumbling from her open mouth in short bursts. Would she even be able to use the office phone? This would be the fourth time within two weeks that a Belcher child had been sent to the office for one reason or another. Louise, Tina remembered, had been there yesterday, grinning wickedly while she waited for the principal to make an appearance.

"Tina, lady, you know you're own the floor, right?" a voiced interrupted Tina's nervous moaning. She blinked at the source of the voice, squinting to make shapes out of the never-ending blur that was inherited bad eyesight. She made out a familiar dark-brown mullet and black tee shirt. _Zeke_. She should have recognized his accent right away, thick and southern.

"I'm aware of that, Zeke," Tina replied, sharp and mocking. Well, as least as sharp as the oldest Belcher child could make her voice. Wide-eyed from a lack of sight didn't really add anything to the sting of her attempted bite.

Tina ignored Zeke's answering laughter to finger at the air, feeling for something to grab onto and pull away from the chubby boy. She didn't exactly hate him – she was too nice for that – but he was too gross for her tastes. He smelled, okay? It was a weird mix of old football, teenage boy, and something that Tina was probably happy that she couldn't name.

Tina jumped when Zeke came closer, blurring her vision further with his face, nose pressing into Tina's. He was squatting in front for her, hands resting on his knees. "Want some help?" he asked. "The teach' sent me after ya."

Ugh. Tina could smell his breath, and it was far less pleasing than the odor that came with the flesh-rotten zombies of her dreams. "What?" she murmured, wrinkling her nose, making her face scrunch up even further.

"Help? Ya need it?" her crush's best friend repeated with a chuckle. He grinned toothily at her confused stare.

J-Ju was lucky; Tina was pretty cute.

Zeke presented the fallen girl with one large hand, waving his thick fingers in front of her face.

"Okay," the older Belcher girl answered after a second, weighing other options against Zeke's offer. The thing was that there wasn't any other options.

Timidly, Tina placed her hand in Zeke's. With a quick jerk, Tina was standing, again, save for the shakiness of her legs. Zeke grabbed her shoulders to keep her from tumbling over, again. Tina blinked at him through thick black bangs. "Thanks," she said, her voice returning to its usual softness.

"So," Zeke begun as after Tina steadied and took a few careful steps down the hall, "you need to make it somewheres?" He was still gripping her by a shoulder, directing her past an open classroom door.

"Uh, downstairs," Tina mumbled, "I need to call my dad for my extra set of glasses."

They rounded the corner of the hall, closing in on the stairwell to the first floor of the brick schoolhouse. Tina glanced at Zeke who was smiling ahead. "So why did you help me?" she asked, quiet, "besides, being asked too?"

The aforementioned boy scoffed, "I'm a lot of things, lady, but a guy who leaves a girl in the dirt ain't one."

Tina blinked, "Um,"

"Sides –, " Zeke continued as he grabbed her elbow when the reached the stairs, "– careful, the first step is always a doozy – you're nice," he said it like it was most obvious thing in the world.

A surprised smile twitched onto Tina's face. "Oh."

* * *

**a/n;**

so my first step into writing for bob's burgers with a chunky and clunky tina and zeke friendship!fic.  
i'm sorry i used tammy as a plot device for tina's missing glasses (it's tina, she could have done a sexy hair flip and tossed them somewhere)  
but, yeah.

oh—coconuts, this is for you, friend!

constructive criticism is brilliant!

_edit_; fixed a few obvious grammar things. i'm sort of an idiot.

- kati


End file.
